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... dial he is oftentimes misunderstood. Shaw never wanted to destroy religion or see it removed from the fabric of society. No, he wanted to affirm religion, that it is needed and available. Though hypocritical in many ways it should persist (Smith 3). Shaw would write letters to Tolstoy for his opinion on his writings.
In a letter about Man and Superman Tolstoy replied to Shaw that it was obvious that Shaw recognized that God has definite aims (Bentley The Life Of The Drama 44). Shaw never wanted to proclaim himself an atheist because he made it apparent in his works that there was a God and this God had power. Possibly the reason Shaw received a bad reputation from many critics was because of his attitudes, not solely his writings. In a statement made after the conclusion of one of his plays Shaw compared himself to Shakespeare and stated he was better than him. This arrogant socialist went up against one of the most loved authors in history and expected to exit with a clean reputation. Shaw hated Shakespeare; he hated everything he stood for and every way he wrote.
Though there was always respect for the man, Shaw despised the man. He may have hated Shakespeare but he was no better, writes Harold Bloom (1). After reading Man and Superman and other Shavian writings that statement holds true. However, as stated earlier, Shakespeare was a master of romance and love on paper, but his works had little political substance. Shaw wrote for purpose not praise that is why he hated the use of allegory. The comedy Shaw used was dry social wit that might be offensive to some.
Shaw felt that allegory took advantage of peoples ignorance, where its only use was for a laugh and nothing else (Park 47). How Shakespeare made allegory his own and part of his style lies at the root of the conflict between Shaw and Shakespeare. Each one of Bernard Shaw's plays has a character with radical beliefs that are misread. Shaw did this to place himself in his works. There is always a shattered or an oppressor like Jack Tanner whose birth stems from his author (Ohmann 30). This is a style all Shaw's own yet it is not uncommon for an author to write himself into a play.
It is certainly no surprise that the activists in his plays are the ones who bear a relation to Shaw. It should be stated though that Shaw did not hide the fact he used ideas of many extremists. In the foreword to Man and Superman Shaw writes that he owes the work to the men Bunyan, Hogarth and Turner. Never does he pretend to be original like many critics blast him for doing (Fiske 62).
It seems that Shaw writes his plays with influence from a triplet of contributors. Man and Superman is said to be a change in Shavian writing from his previous plays, such as Candida, that got their influence from Ibsen, Because and Brief (Valency 76). It is no wonder Shaw admired Marx after reading Man and Superman because one would believe Jack Tanner to embody the spirits of that man and the comparison can even be made that Tanners The Revolutionists Handbook is similar in theory to that of the Communist manifesto. There are many philosophers and radicals that Shaw got his ideas from, but he does not deserve scorn for it. This proves his willingness to read others views and adopt them as his own. The criticism still remains though.
Shaw saw himself as an advanced thinker and this attitude is what turns off many people about him. The feeling that his views are better than others creates conflict in his work when read by someone of a more conservative stance. Eric Bentley writes that Shaw was more of an old fashion thinker, that his brand of an advanced thinker is closer to those advanced thinkers of Nietzsche's time not todays (71). Hopefully the idea that Man and Superman was written for the purpose of sending a message is apparent. This play is highly political in nature for it holds a number of grievances with common institutions in England and the world. Coupled with the fact that Shaw brought the ideas of many ideological thinkers into this work there becomes an overwhelming feeling that this is more than a dry love story.
The third act holds the Don Juan in hell scene that many refer to as a play in itself. This play holds more of the political commentary than found throughout the real play. It is here that Shaw writes how democracy will fail and that there needs to be a strong few to pick the country up after its demise (Smith 110). The institution of marriage that Shaw continually attacks in Man and Superman is in fact more than just an attack on that institution.
It is an attack on what the government has created through that institution. Marriage has become something forced upon the two due to a life force. Some critics feel this life force is a biological thinking; in fact many hold this belief. However, others feel the life force is a term used for the state.
There are so many more benefits that await a couple who marry that it seems that the government is endorsing marriage and condemning bachelorhood (Valley 100). Like that of so many things in literature the symbolism is in the eyes of the beholder. In Man and Superman the political beliefs pressed upon the reader can be interpreted a number of ways. Some interpretations Shaw never intended to be thought, but others he is adamant about sharing. One thing he wanted in writing this and his other plays was to stir controversy. He wanted his work to be more than a simple one-tier comedy.
Shaw loved to spark controversy because he had so many opposing views and that is what he strived for in writing one of his most famous works, Man and Superman. Literature can be seen as a barometer of the times, it holds the views and opinions dear to each author. George Bernard Shaw was a writer who did not care what waves he made, because he wanted that turbulence. In his classic work Man and Superman Shaw used character interactions to voice his objections to common institutions. There is more to this play than a love story and a sons struggle for his fathers approval. It is this approval that each character strives to achieve that introduces conflict into the plot.
Shaw uses the conflict he created to further his cause and lay the blueprint for what he feels is needed in a superman to combat the doomed democracy.
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Research essay sample on The Literature Of George Bernard Shaw
